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Best Practices for Time Travelers (2003)
- josh_fyi 3y agoI was hoping to see "Best Practices for Time Travelers (2043)"
- B1FF_PSUVM 3y agoProbably not a best practice.
- lapetitejort 3y agoThe author learned that the hard way. It took three trips to correct.
- pizzafeelsright 3y agoThis was republished in violation of the Time Travel Ban of 1954, which was later repealed in 1942 and reinstated in 1941. The ban remains in effect until 2066 and finally legalized in 2051 with restrictions of no travel before 2025 due to the "intervention leading to the Temporal Event of 2015".
- RecycledEle 3y agoJohn Titor said he arrived in a 1967 Corvette that he brought with him from 2036. I do not think he said it was a 2036 Corvette. If he planned to travel to the early 1970's, that makes sense. Here is a bit about it. I can not confirm any of what they are saying: https://www.reddit.com/r/JohnTitor/comments/yago4w/john_titors_corvette_would_have_a_duplicate/ https://www.reddit.com/r/JohnTitor/comments/yago4w/john_tito...
- ge96 3y agoCould carbon dating prove age or is that too accurate eg. needs to be 100s of years apart.
- RecycledEle 3y agoThat is an interesting idea. We are unlikely to ever get a resolution, but... There are imperfections from the factory in every car. Welds were done by hand in 1976. Repairs were done by hand. I wonder what improbable similarities the 2 cars could have.
- quietpain 3y agoThe car would be authentic, built in 1967. What the person is asking is whether there's a technique to distinguish a car from 1967 from a sibling that was brought back from 2036.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoLook for radioisotopes from the war of 2031.
- RecycledEle 3y agoLet's say there was a Corvette made in 1967. Let's say that in the 2030's, John Titor brought it back to the past. Let's say we found this car because it had a duplicate VIN number. Then if we put the 2 cars side-by-side, we should be able to tell if one is a re-VINed stolen car, or if they are both the same car. I suggested we look at welds that were done by hand in 1967 to determine if the 2 cars were the same car. Does that make sense?
- lazide 3y agoIn this scenario, both cars would be made in 1967. One of the cars would be a few years old. The other car would be about 70 years old. Yeah?
- RecycledEle 3y ago> One of the cars would be a few years old. Let's recheck your math. A 1967 Corvette would me more than a few years old in 2023.
- mjevans 3y agoAvoid paradoxes is likely the one thing even someone trying to change the past needs / wants to accomplish. It'd be nice if some tiny pool of government resources (everywhere) were set aside in 'untraceable' ways that only someone from many years later could use, by which time any untapped resources would be rolled into a new investment area or returned to the general fund. The non time traveler version would be completely off the books spy operations, so plausibly someone might rarely need that for non-time traveler reasons and thus hide any time travelers.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dang 3y agoDiscussed 13 years later: Best Practices for Time Travelers (2003) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051116 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051116 - Nov 2016 (76 comments)
- idlewords 3y agoThat discussion is what prompted me to go back and write the original
- leobabauta 3y agoPerfect comment. Thank you for your writing, Maciej. It’s so good.
- lapetitejort 3y agoIf I wanted to gain access to places in 2023 without too much trouble, I'd don a hard-hat, reflective vest, and a clipboard. However, what is the equivalent attire for 1880's London? 500's Mesoamerica? 300's Rome? Please answer fast as my rift is opening.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoUse your rift to check back for late answers...
- lapetitejort 3y agoA real time traveler would know that opening a rift just to get the latest Hacker News was banned in 2052
- rollcat 3y agoSorry for nitpicking on your grammar, but you are supposed to use the prophetic perfect for stating future events as if they were past. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophetic_perfect_tense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophetic_perfect_tense
- sprobertson 3y agoI think "was banned" is correct according to that link - > future events ... are referred to in the past tense as if they had already happened Lots of wordy theologist writing elsewhere in the article but it sounds like in practice it's just using the past tense.
- Tao3300 3y agoBy Imperial Edict of Dang I
- KineticLensman 3y ago> the equivalent attire for 1880's London? Either a top-hat and a suitably wealthy attitude, or dress like a washerwoman who has come to scrub the floors.
- jonah 3y agoHere's a joke I like telling: Regarding astral projection, Woody Allen once wrote, "It is not a bad way to travel, although there is usually a half-hour wait for your luggage."
- KineticLensman 3y agoA useful source of tips is in 'Percival Dunwoody Idiot Time Traveller From 1909' [0] as long as you do the exact opposite. My personal advice: Don't get in that time machine and travel back! Not if you are on any sort of meds. [0] e.g. https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2010/11/12 https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2010/11/12
- pixl97 3y agoWell, disease may be another big risk, but not for you, for the people in the past. If you shed MSRA you could make all the drugs of the 20th century ineffective killing billions.
- bryanrasmussen 3y agoI told a buddy about this and he replied in some ways I found interesting, so I have attempted to the best of my abilities to replicate his response herein: Long, exaggerated sigh for effect...OK, Titor is a totally reasonable time traveler for someone employed by the U.S Army, that is to say he is not especially creative. The Army values people who can think inside the box, and this guy can. If this is what you do for time traveling you might as well go see a movie, and not a very good one either. If you have a quick layover somewhere, make it interesting - I recently wrote the guide to 10 concerts you should see if you are a time traveler https://medium.com/p/8d2ead8cb643 https://medium.com/p/8d2ead8cb643 or maybe you might just like to go get high with the quality drugs of yesteryear? https://medium.com/luminasticity/using-time-travel-to-score-drugs-50222384a4e6 https://medium.com/luminasticity/using-time-travel-to-score-... Maybe there is a favorite food that you can no longer get? My guilty pleasure was 7-11 Nachos from the 80s when you could pile it up high enough to survive all day on one box, as long as you didn't care overmuch about what it did to your insides https://medium.com/luminasticity/a-stopover-for-nachos-8aed81fa4ee1 https://medium.com/luminasticity/a-stopover-for-nachos-8aed8... Or indulge in some revenge on your worst enemies after they're gone and can't get even https://medium.com/luminasticity/money-making-opportunities-for-time-travelers-piss-tourism-7d2504c85b98 https://medium.com/luminasticity/money-making-opportunities-... These may not be best practices, but they are enjoyable practices, and someone able to access all of time and space that doesn't attempt to enjoy themselves has definitely something a bit wrong in the head - just saying. Lucky this guy found someone to order him around in his life.
- Simon_ORourke 3y agoWhat about alternative historical timelines arriving in 2023? There's fewer mention of those H.G. Wells style Edwardian gentlemen showing up in some other timeline 150 years into their future!
- craz8 3y agoAppearing at a science fiction convention as a Steampunk character allows them to blend right in. I’ve seen hundreds of these travelers go by. Some with lighter dress have passed as artisanal bartenders too
- motohagiography 3y agoWe had time travel in the 90's. It's a peculiarity of this simulation where the formation of mushrooms is oddly consistent in pretty much every evolutionary system. We used them to open a rift and send messages into the future called voicemail.
- aidog 3y agoJohn Titor inspired Steins;Gate my favorite Anime about Time Travel. It's a masterpiece.
- Sniffnoy 3y agoHm, seems a black hole would have to be at least about the mass of an asteroid in order to be down to a manageable temperature...
- Threeve303 3y agoWhile time travel is scientifically possible, the Fermi paradox ends any civilization long before they are able to make it a reality